Safety device for elevators.



' M. D. VANDERHEYDEN.

SAFETY DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS.

. APPLIOAIION FILED JAN. 27, 1908. 911 ,631

Patented Feb. 9; 1909.

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A W A E WWW M. D. VAJHDER'HEYDEN. SAFETY 11311101: r011 ELEVATORS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 27, 1908.

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MERTON D. VANDERHEYDEN, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES W.SMITH,

OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 9, 1909.

Application filed January 27, 1908. Serial N 0. 412,797.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MERTON D. VANDER- HEYDEN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of NewYork, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Safety Devices forElevators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a safety device for controlling the operationof the gates or doors which close the doorways or openings leading toelevator shafts or hatchways and more articularly to that class ofdevices or contro lers which are known as semi-automatic in which thedoor or gate is raised or opened manually and held in this position ifthe elevator car is located at that particular floor but releases thedoor. or gate and permits the same to close automatically when the carleaves that particular floor.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved safety device ofthis character which is simpler in construction and more reliable inoperation and which is very compact in construction, thereby renderingthe same especially suited for elevators having a brick hatchway inwhich the available space for installing a safety device is verylimited.

In the accompanying drawings consisting of 2 sheets: Figure 1 is afragmentary vertical section of an elevator provided with my improvedsafety device. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section thereof on line 22,Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section, on an enlarged scale,and showing the parts of the safety device in position for holding thegate or door in its elevated position. Fig. 4: is a similar view showingthe position of the detent pawl or dog in its retracted or inoperativeposition in which the gate is released and permitted to descend into itsclosed position. Fig. 5 is a face view of the detent pawl, its shiftinglever and associated parts. Fig. 6 is a similar view of the gate weight.Figs. 7 and 8 are horizontal sections on the correspondingly numberedlines in Fig. 3, res ectively.

imilar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout theseveral views.

A indicates the elevator shaft or hatchway extending vertically throughthe several floors B of the building and provided on each floor with oneor more ate ways or door openings 0. As shown in t e drawings, thishatchway is constructed of brick for better protection against fire andprovided on its opposite sides at each floor with gateways or dooropenings. Moving vertically in this shaft or hatchway is the car D whichtogether with its raising and lowering mechanism may be of any suitableand approved construction.

Each of the gateways or door openings of the elevator shaft is providedwith a gate or door E which is guided onits opposite vertical edges invertical guideways 6 arranged on the respective sides of the gateway.This gate normally remains by its weight in its lowered position inwhich it ractically closes the openingleading from t e floor to thehatchway.

F represents a gate-weight which moves vertica y in an upright guidewayor weight box G arranged on the inner side of the hatchway adjacent toone side of the gateway and which is operatively connected at its upperend with thetop of the gate by means of a rope or similar flexiblemember H passing over wheels or pulleys h, 7L at the top of the weightbox and the gateway so that upon lowering the gate the weight will beraised while upon raising the gate the weight will be lowered in the boxG. This gate-weight preferably consists of two upright parallel bars f,f, a head f connecting the upper ends of these bars and provided with avertical opening f and a plurality of cross pieces or teeth f connectingsaid side bars at different points in its height below the head thereof.The gate rope H is secured to this gate-weight by passing it through theopening of the head and tying a knot in the rope for engagement with theunderside of said head, as shown in Fig. 6. Each of the teeth fis'preferably made V- shaped or tapering in cross section with itspointed or narrow end facing forwardly and its upper side arrangedhorizontally while its lower side inclines downwardly from its front toits rear end.

I indicates. a detent pawlor dog which is arranged with its operative orfront arm in an opening I in the outer side of the weight box adjacentto the place where the gateweight is located when the gate is raised andwhich is adapted to be moved transversely forward into the path of thegate weight for engaging one of the teeth thereof and holding the gatein its raised position or to be retracted from the path of the weightand the respective teeth thereof to permit the gate to descend into itslowered position. This pawl is arranged in an opening "L formed in thecentral part of an upright shifting lever J to which it is pivoted bymeans of a transverse pin so as to be capable of swing ing in a verticalplane. The pawl is normally held in a nearly horizontal position bymeans of a weight 7r: arranged on its outer or rear arm which tendsconstantly to lift its front or inner arm, the movement of the pawl inthis direction being limited by means of a stop shoulder Z which isformed on the bottom of the recess or opening t in the shifting lever inposition to be engaged by the underside of the rear arm of the pawl, asshown in Fig. t. he lower end of this shifting lever is pivoted by meansof a transverse pin m to the lower end of a bracket M which is securedto the weight box and extends upwardly nearly the full height of theshifting lever.

The central part of the bracket is providedwith an opening m throughwhich the front arm of the detent pawl projects. The pivot at the lowerend of the shifting lever is located in front of the center of gravityof the shifting lever so that the weight of the latter constantly tendsto swing the upper end of the same backwardly or away from the weightbox. The movement of the shifting lever in this direction is limited andalso guided by a stop and guide device which preferably consists of aloop at arranged on' the upper part of the bracket and embracing theshifting lever near its upper end and above the pawl.

0 represents a shifting cam or shoe which is mounted on the elevator carand adapted to shift the lever J when the car is opposite the gateway oropening at the respective floors and cause the detent pawl to be movedinto the proper position for engaging the gate-weight and holding thegate open if the same should be. raised by hand. This cam or shoe isprovided with a central vertical face 0 and inclined or receding faces 0at opposite ends of the vertical face which are adapted to engage withan antifriction roller p pivoted on the upper bi furcated end of theshifting lever above the pawl and guide and stop n.

hen the elevator car is not resent at the particular floor of thebuilding then the shifting lever is free to swing outwardly orrearwardly by gravity into the position shown in Fig. 4 in which itcarries the detent pawl backwardly so that its front arm clears the pathof the gate weight. If at this time the gate should be raised the samewill not be caught and held but will immediately return by gravity whenreleased to its closed position, thereby preventing leaving the gatewayleading to the hatchway unobstructed when the car is not at thatparticular floor. hen the car arrives opposite a gateway, its cam orshoe by engaging with the roller of the shifting lever moves the latterforwardly together with the detent pawl so that the front arm of thesame projects into the guidcway within the guide box. If the gate israised while the shifting lever, pawl and car are in this position thegate w .ight in its descent through. the .veigth box will cause thefront arm of the pawl to be deflected every time one of its teeth fstrikes the same. After a tooth of the gate weight clears the front armof the detent pawl, the latter swings forwardly over the respectivetooth in position to engage with the upper side of the same and preventthe weight from rising and the gate from descending when the latter islet go by the person who lifted. it. As the elevator leaves theparticular floor the cam or shoe with drawn from the roller 1), wherebythe shifting lever is permitted to swing backwardly by gravity andwithdraw the operative or front arm of the detent pawl from theparticul.-n tooth or cross piece of the gate weight, whereby the latteris released and the gate is permitted to automatically descend into itsclosed position.

The end of the front arm of the detent pawl or dog is preferably madepointed and provided with an inclined lower face i which extendsbackwardly and downwardly from its front end whereby the possibility ofthis pawl meeting end to end with one of the teeth of tl e gate weightand the liability of blocking the safety device or breaking the same isavoided.

By mounting the detent pawl on a single armed shifting lever which ispivoted at its lower end so that gravity will operate to retract it toits inoperative position, the use of springs for this purpose is avoidedthus reducing the liability of this mechanism getting out of order.Furthermore, by operatively engaging the shoe or cam on the car with theshifting lever above the detent pawl it is possible to obtain a verycompact construction and still give the parts sullicient freedom ofmovement to work reliably.

By constructing the weight in the manner shown and describedcomparatively long teeth are provided without unduly widening the weightfor this purpose and as no bottom is present at the base of these teethit is impossible for the front arm of the detent pawl to strike anobstruction as it is moved forwardly over a tooth, thereby avoiding thenecessity of nicely adjusting these parts relatively to each other andpreventing breakage of parts which would be liable to occur if the rearends of the teeth on the weight bar were connected and formed a bottomwith which the front end of the detent pawl would be liable to engage.

Although my improved safety device owing to its compact construction isparticularly desirable for use in elevators having brick hatchways it isequally serviceable for elevators in which the hatchways are open.

I claim as my invention:

1. A safety device for elevators com rising a weight adapted to beconnected with the gate and havlng two upright side bars and a pluralityof teeth-or cross pieces connecting said bars at different points intheir height, a shifting lever, a detent pawl pivoted on the shiftinglever and adapted to" engage with said teeth, and a shoeor cam adaptedto operatively engage said shifting lever and to be connected with thecar, substantially as set forth.

2. A safety device for elevators comprising a weight adapted to beconnected with the gate and having two upright side bars and a pluralityof teeth or cross pieces connecting saidbars at different points intheir height, a shifting lever, a detent pawl pivoted on the shiftinglever and adapted to engage with said teeth, and a shoe or cam adaptedto operatively engage said shifting lever and to be connected with thecar, the teeth of said weight tapering toward their front ends and saidpawl having a pointed front end and an inclined face extendingdownwardly and backwardly from the pointed end of the pawl,substantially as set forth.

Witness my hand this 18 day of December, 1907.

MEHTON D. VANDERHEYDEN. Witnesses:

THEO. L. PoPr, ANNA Hnrers.

